Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
Nehemiah 2:9-10
Isn’t it amazing that there are some people who never want you to succeed? Not just one’s enemies such as Nehemiah’s but co-workers who want to keep you at their mediocre level of life. Call it professional jealousy or fear that their own deficiencies will be exposed or just call it a downright nasty attitude but there will be those who are against you.
Nehemiah had people like that such as those mentioned above as well as others. However, Nehemiah had something that most of us don’t have (at least not visibly) and that was an entourage military captains and horsemen and he had letters from the king. So, while Sanballat and others were grieved but there was not a great deal that they could do about it.
It is the same with us if we can only believe it. We also have an enemy who does not want us to succeed. He has been fighting the people of God for centuries and yet he has not learned that those who trust in God are going to succeed in accomplishing the will of God regardless of his attempts to interfere, discourage and stop the work that we are called to do.
Nehemiah’s project was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and to rebuild and replace the gates thereof. Here are the words of those who tried to stop the progress of the project:
“But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was in a rage, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What do these feeble Jews do? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.”
Nehemiah 4:1-3
What was Nehemiah’s response? “So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.”
People who taunt you with their words cannot stop you if you have a mind to work for the Lord, so keep on working and God will reward you in due time and you will be blessed in the process of your work for the Lord. Amen and amen!!
